登陆注册
5250900000013

第13章 III. THE MYSTERY OF THE WELL(1)

Cyprian Paynter did not know what he expected to see rise out of the well--the corpse of the murdered man or merely the spirit of the fountain. Anyhow, neither of them rose out of it, and he recognized after an instant that this was, after all, perhaps the more natural course of things. Once more he pulled himself together, walked to the edge of the well and looked down.

He saw, as before, a dim glimmer of water, at that depth no brighter than ink; he fancied he still heard a faint convulsion and murmur, but it gradually subsided to an utter stillness.

Short of suicidally diving in, there was nothing to be done.

He realized that, with all his equipment, he had not even brought anything like a rope or basket, and at length decided to return for them. As he retraced his steps to the entrance, he recurred to, and took stock of, his more solid discoveries.

Somebody had gone into the wood, killed the Squire and thrown him down the well, but he did not admit for a moment that it was his friend the poet; but if the latter had actually been seen coming out of the wood the matter was serious.

As he walked the rapidly darkening twilight was cloven with red gleams, that made him almost fancy for a moment that some fantastic criminal had set fire to the tiny forest as he fled.

A second glance showed him nothing but one of those red sunsets in which such serene days sometimes close.

As he came out of the gloomy gate of trees into the full glow he saw a dark figure standing quite still in the dim bracken, on the spot where he had left the woodcutter. It was not the woodcutter.

It was topped by a tall black hat of a funeral type, and the whole figure stood so black against the field of crimson fire that edged the sky line that he could not for an instant understand or recall it.

When he did, it was with an odd change in the whole channel of his thoughts.

"Doctor Brown!" he cried. "Why, what are you doing up here?"

"I have been talking to poor Martin," answered the doctor, and made a rather awkward movement with his hand toward the road down to the village. Following the gesture, Paynter dimly saw another dark figure walking down in the blood-red distance.

He also saw that the hand motioning was really black, and not merely in shadow; and, coming nearer, found the doctor's dress was really funereal, down to the detail of the dark gloves.

It gave the American a small but queer shock, as if this were actually an undertaker come up to bury the corpse that could not be found.

"Poor Martin's been looking for his chopper," observed Doctor Brown, "but I told him I'd picked it up and kept it for him.

Between ourselves, I hardly think he's fit to be trusted with it." Then, seeing the glance at his black garb, he added:

"I've just been to a funeral. Did you know there's been another loss?

Poor Jake the fisherman's wife, down in the cottage on the shore, you know. This infernal fever, of course."

As they both turned, facing the red evening light, Paynter instinctively made a closer study, not merely of the doctor's clothes, but of the doctor. Dr. Burton Brown was a, tall, alert man, neatly dressed, who would otherwise have had an almost military air but for his spectacles and an almost painful intellectualism in his lean brown face and bald brow.

The contrast was clinched by the fact that, while his face was of the ascetic type generally conceived as clean-shaven, he had a strip of dark mustache cut too short for him to bite, and yet a mouth that often moved as if trying to bite it.

He might have been a very intelligent army surgeon, but he had more the look of an engineer or one of those services that combine a military silence with a more than military science.

Paynter had always respected something ruggedly reliable about the man, and after a little hesitation he told him all the discoveries.

The doctor took the hat of the dead Squire in his hand, and examined it with frowning care. He put one finger through the hole in the crown and moved it meditatively.

And Paynter realized how fanciful his own fatigue must have made him; for so silly a thing as the black finger waggling through the rent in that frayed white relic unreasonably displeased him, The doctor soon made the same discovery with professional acuteness, and applied it much further.

For when Paynter began to tell him of the moving water in the well he looked at him a moment through his spectacles, and then said:

"Did you have any lunch?"

Paynter for the first time realized that he had, as a fact, worked and thought furiously all day without food.

"Please don't fancy I mean you had too much lunch," said the medical man, with mournful humor. "On the contrary, I mean you had too little.

I think you are a bit knocked out, and your nerves exaggerate things.

Anyhow, let me advise you not to do any more to-night. There's nothing to be done without ropes or some sort of fishing tackle, if with that; but I think I can get you some of the sort of grappling irons the fishermen use for dragging. Poor Jake's got some, I know; I'll bring them round to you tomorrow morning.

The fact is, I'm staying there for a bit as he's rather in a state, and I think is better for me to ask for the things and not a stranger.

I am sure you'll understand."

Paynter understood sufficiently to assent, and hardly knew why he stood vacantly watching the doctor make his way down the steep road to the shore and the fisher's cottage. Then he threw off thoughts he had not examined, or even consciously entertained, and walked slowly and rather heavily back to the Vane Arms.

The doctor, still funereal in manner, though no longer so in costume, appeared punctually under the wooden sign next morning, laden with what he had promised; an apparatus of hooks and a hanging net for hoisting up anything sunk to a reasonable depth.

He was about to proceed on his professional round, and said nothing further to deter the American from proceeding on his own very unprofessional experiment as a detective.

同类推荐
  • 上清金阙帝君五斗三一图诀

    上清金阙帝君五斗三一图诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Golden Slipper

    The Golden Slipper

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 昙芳守忠禅师语录

    昙芳守忠禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 戒子通录

    戒子通录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • A HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES

    A HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 霸唱风云

    霸唱风云

    十万天驱今何在?神州陆沉,有蛮族铁塔踏破河山,巍巍大周,有佳人傲立城头击鼓高歌,有甲士抛家舍业面北而死有无尽的风流和荡气回肠!
  • 佛顶尊胜陀罗尼念诵仪轨

    佛顶尊胜陀罗尼念诵仪轨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 陈刚中诗集

    陈刚中诗集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 陀罗尼杂集卷

    陀罗尼杂集卷

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 四斩之权

    四斩之权

    这是一个在三界辗转的故事,主人公是一个17岁的男孩,隶属魔界一个叫做四斩的魔国。有时候一个魔国一个人太过于耀眼出风头反而不好,容易被列为别人的目标。魔界和人类世界的故事情节比较重些,仙界的不会太多。这里面最最主要的还是我们的主人公的历练之路,兄弟与爱情到底是会成为他前进的助力还是阻碍呢?最后死掉的会是谁?人心并不容易温暖,就算是陌生人也能变成朋友不是么?
  • 每天学点佛学智慧:不生气

    每天学点佛学智慧:不生气

    在这个世界上,能够事事如愿以偿的人本就没有几个。你一心一意做事情,付出很大努力,结果却不是自己想得到的,你会因此感到沮丧。其实,沮丧或生气,对结果来说根本没有任何意义。无论你怎样沮丧,怎样生气,结果已经产生,不能够再回到开始。这时,你所要做的就是回忆过程,寻找下一个出口。不必留恋昨日的失败,也不必介意已经成为事实的结果。无论你是否如愿以偿,都要及时从中跳出来,看清它在整个世界中的真实位置,即它在无限时空中的微不足道。这样,你得到了不会忘乎所以,失去了也不会气愤难当。
  • 红尘如泥

    红尘如泥

    她三岁识字,五岁能诗,六岁随父亲遍游江南名胜,八岁离家出走英吉利国不遂,竟绝食以死抗争缠足,十五岁以文才和大脚名闻乡里。十六岁遭张家退婚,愤而誓言不嫁,仍不服气,设计让未婚夫一尝缠足之苦。二十二岁人生遭遇大变,乱世中与母亲姐妹生离死别,于绝境中奋起,一举在太平天国女试中夺魁,得到东王重用,运用智慧才学影响国政决策,却在爱情与自由意志间陷入重重危机……历经爱恨生死磨难,冲破红尘泥沼,振翅高飞。她是中国历史上仅有的女状元,她是传奇。她是傅善祥。
  • 安徒生童话

    安徒生童话

    安徒生的童话作品与民间文学有着非常密切的血肉联系,他的作品大多取材于民间故事或引用民间歌谣和传说,继承并发扬了民间文学朴素清新的格调,非常适合阅读与讲述。
  • 人生的枷锁(上)

    人生的枷锁(上)

    《人生的枷锁》是英国作家毛姆被公认的杰作,也是一部带有自传色彩的小说。本书问世至今,曾三次被搬上大荧幕,并入选了“20世纪百大英文小说”。书中的主人公菲利普从小就过着不幸的生活。他父母双亡,先天跛足,童年时代也在既陌生又压抑的环境中度过。当他步入社会,又经受了理想破灭之苦和爱情的伤痛。备受煎熬的他始终没有放弃自己,而是在更加坎坷的人生道路上坚决前行。在历经各种磨难之后,菲利普终于摆脱了之前禁锢自己思想和精神的种种枷锁,找到了适合自己的人生方向。
  • 佛说大生义经

    佛说大生义经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。